Telling the Truth
by Medie Shanachie
Summary: Aiden has a secret she's been hiding from Lorne.


_Author's Note: This takes place after "Handbooks to Interagency Co-Operation", but before "She's Having a Baby" (which I haven't finished yet). Just so you know it spoils a little bit of the end of Handbook, but nothing really major...just mostly information that Aiden hasn't given to Lorne yet, but will by the end of that story. So just a harmless little bit of fluff._

_Standard disclaimer on everything Atlantis related._

Aiden rolled over in bed, surprised to see Evan looking down at her; wide-awake. "You really should be sleeping," she pointed out. "You've got a mission tomorrow. Plus once the babies come neither one of us will be sleeping much."

"I could tell you the same thing," he replied, rubbing a lazy hand down her body.

"_I_," she declared, "have to pee. _Again_." As she tossed back the blankets and got out of bed, he hid a smile. Aiden was tiny to begin with, but as she reached her eighth month of pregnancy, she was beginning to appear to be all baby.

He sat up and watched as she waddled (there really was no other word for the way she walked right now) into the bathroom. When she came back out a few minutes later, her comment had registered. "Aiden," he said slowly, "did you say '_babies_'? As in more than one?"

"I don't know why you're surprised," she responded. "I have twin brothers."

"And you were planning to tell me this when?" he questioned. "When you went into labor?"

"I didn't tell you?"

"No."

She attempted to look contrite. "Oops."

"Aiden, we've discussed this. Oops is never a good thing. Especially when it comes to you." He held out his hand to her, inviting her back to bed and snuggled her against him when she accepted. Resting his hand against the mound that was their child; _children_, he reminded himself silently, he asked, "Were you afraid to tell me for some reason?"

Aiden cupped his cheek with her hand. "No. Never that, grá. It just never seemed like the right time. I swear I really intended to tell you before now."

"It's okay," he soothed her. "I'm not mad. Just a little shocked." He grinned as something moved beneath his hand. "They're awake?"

"One is so the other will be soon." She sighed. "Which means I'm not getting anymore sleep tonight."

"So what're we having?" he asked. "Or don't you know?"

Aiden laced her fingers through his. "One of each."

"Oh. So that's why you've been collecting both boys' and girls' names." He winced as she grunted under the force of a particularly strong kick. "Hey! Stop that. You're hurting your mama and that's not nice." Rubbing their joined hands over the babies, he ordered, "You settle down. Your daddy has a mission tomorrow and your mama really needs her sleep."

Aiden giggled, but then sighed with relief as the gyrations in her midsection ceased. "Thanks, Ev. Goddess, I hope that works as well after they're born."

"I doubt it. More likely they were just ready to sleep. Come on." He kissed the top of her head. "Roll over and I'll rub your back for a bit."

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Aiden said as she struggled to roll onto her side.

Evan helped her adjust her position. "It's all right, amour. I'm not upset." Gentle hands rubbed up and down her back. She had become more attractive to him, not less, as she grew but he knew in her unwieldy state that the last thing on her mind right now was sex. As she melted under his ministrations, he felt himself begin to harden and he backed away from her, not wanting her to know.

"What's wrong?" she asked when she felt him shift.

"Nothing, Aid," he responded immediately.

"Then why are you pulling away?" She reached behind her and drew him back towards her body, pausing when she felt him up against her. "Oh."

"Yeah. Sorry."

"Why? There's nothing wrong with having that reaction. Your body's conditioned to respond to touching mine so it makes sense that you would get hard. And it's not like we've had sex lately so it's even more likely that something as innocuous as a back rub would turn you on."

Evan groaned. "You've been spending too much time with the biologists. And, just so you know, that just killed any urge I had to have sex."

"I'm sorry I've been neglecting you, Ev," she said softly.

"Aiden, mon amour doux, you've had other things on your mind. Not the least of which is the two very precious babies you're carrying. Don't worry about it. Now," he snuggled up against her, cradling her in his arms, "I want you to go to sleep. Je t'aime. I'm happy about the babies and not at all upset that you didn't tell me, but I have a mission that leaves at Oh-eight hundred and you need to rest."

"All I do is _rest_," she grumbled.

"Which is why our babies are still here," he rubbed her stomach gently, "and not there." He pointed across the room to the cradle Ronon had built for them. Kissing the back of her head, he whispered, "Sleep, amoureux." Considering what she had told him, he added, "We're going to need another cradle

"Ronon's working on one," she said, settling down again. "Tá mé chomh mór sin i ngrá leat, tá mé chomh doirte sin duit," she mumbled.

He grinned at the Irish, grateful he had picked up a few phrases over the years. Sometimes he wondered if Irish, not English, was her first language since she lapsed into it so often. Je t'aime, aussi, he told her.

"Be careful tomorrow. Come home safe to us."

"I will," he promised, but her even breathing told him she had already drifted off.

mon amour doux--my sweet love

Je t'aime--I love you

amoureux--sweetheart

tá mé chomh mór sin i ngrá leat, tá mé chomh doirte sin duit--I love you so much

Je t'aime, aussi—I love you, too


End file.
